Pellicano Trial: Chris Rock Testifies

Looking irritated and somber, Chris Rock testified today to having his lawyer hire Anthony Pellicano to investigate a woman claiming to be pregnant with his child. Mr. Rock, who was admonished by the Judge to project after he mumbled the spelling of his name, seemed alternatively bored and annoyed by the prosecutor's questions. When asked if the woman who claimed to be having his child was Monika Zsibrita, Mr. Rock tiredly responded, "guess so." (DNA results later confirmed that Mr. Rock was not the father of Ms. Zsibrita's child.) Mr. Rock told the jury that it was also Mr. Pellicano who told him that Ms. Zsibrita has filed a police report claiming that he'd assaulted her. "How did you first learn about the police report of the assault," Mr. Saunders asked the comedian. "Through Mr. Pellicano," Mr. Rock replied. Mr. Pellicano nodded as Mr. Rock identified exactly what the detective had done for him and occasionally smiled at the comedian.

On cross-examination, Mr. Rock appeared to be even more annoyed about having to be in the courtroom. When asked if he'd ever met one of the defendants, Mr. Rock replied, "I meet a lot of people." Taking a page from the Brad Grey book of Pellicano testimony, Mr. Rock told the jury that he chosen to hire Mr. Pellicano based on his attorney's recommendation. When Mr. Hummel, the attorney for Sgt. Mark Arneson, asked Mr. Rock about whether the comedian believed that Ms. Zsibrita's paternity claim was false and that he'd been "shaken down" by her, Mr. Rock seemed to take umbrage at the form of the question. "I didn't believe the claim was false, DNA tests proved it was false," he said irritably. "Someone not pregnant with my child claimed to be pregnant with my child and requested large sums of money."

Mr. Rock also testified that he learned about Ms. Zsibrita's allegations that he'd assaulted her from none other than everybody's favorite private detective, Anthony Pellicano. Mr. Rock said that although he never saw the actual police report, Mr. Pellicano told him about it. He also added that the allegations of assault in the report were false and that he was never arrested. "So, you know that you believe that you didn't do anything wrong?" Mr. Hummel asked about the assault allegations. "I don't believe it," Mr. Rock replied. "I'm here as a free man... I didn't do anything wrong." Finally, Mr. Hummel asked Mr. Rock if he knew that Mr. Pellicano was following Ms. Zsibrita. "Not really," Mr. Rock said, seemingly oblivious to everything that the detective had done to Ms. Zsibrita on his behalf.

Taking pains to tell Mr. Rock that the government wouldn't be playing the entire recording of Mr. Rock's conversation with Mr. Pellicano, the prosecutor politely asked Mr. Rock if Mr. Pellicano told him the content of the police report made against him by Ms. Zsibrita. "Yes," Mr. Rock answered quickly. The government then played only a small portion of a conversation between Mr. Rock and Mr. Pellicano--politely leaving out the part of the call in which Mr. Pellicano promises to "blacken" up Ms. Zsibrita and Mr. Rock seems to be on board with the plan. The entirety of Mr. Rock's phone call can be heard in one of my earlier posts here. In the portion of the call that the government played, Mr. Pellicano is heard bragging about how he got access to the Ms. Zsibrita's police report. And after that, the government stopped playing the recording. So, that was all the jury really heard... Mr. Rock was free to go and get on with his life.

Next up was cuckolded husband, Alec Gores, giving the down and dirty details about how he found out that his brother was sleeping with his wife. Mr. Gores shockingly testified that the reason he hired Anthony Pellicano was because the detective was recommended to him by then attorney, Patricia Glaser, of the firm Christensen, Glaser. Ms. Glaser is currently representing her partner and another defendant in the Anthony Pellicano wiretapping conspiracy, attorney Terry Christensen. Ah, what a tangled web Mr. Pellicano wove.... Ms. Glaser has previously stated that she had nothing to do with Anthony Pellicano. Apparently, Mr. Gores believes otherwise. (Mr. Gores, in another interesting twist, is represented by Ms. Glaser's ex-partner, Skip Miller.)